Kyozou: Already The Next Big Thing?

Everyone should be familiar with the Biblical story of David taking on a much larger, and apparantly much stronger, Philistine named Goliath. Such stories abound of the "little guy" over-coming seemingly insurmountable odds, and emerging victorious, almost every day in our mainstream news media.

It isn't very often, though, in the high-tech world of e-commerce that the story holds true: usually, in fact, it is exactly the opposite. The Internet is littered with the ghostly electronic signatures of long-swallowed, once promising corporations. Yes, sometimes "Goliath" does win.

In the multi-channel seller's world, there wasn't necessarily a single giant, per se. It could be argued that two companies battled and scraped with each other relentlessly for every step of virtual ground, striking toe-to-toe while some of the smaller warriors carefully went about their own business and waited for one of the giants to fall. It was only a matter of time, they collectively thought, before one of them had to perish.

However, it wasn't a fall as much as it was a 'swallowing'. ChannelAdvisor merged with Marketworks, and turned and prepared for a response from the smaller, solid warriors. Seemingly, it never came - except from one camp. Kyozou Inc., the colorful Toronto-based automation software company with the equally colorful "Samurai" mascot, has stepped into the fray and has crafted an aggressive response to the recent merger.

Kyozou has announced, in a bold step to assert themselves as a real alternative for those online merchants who may not be too pleased with recent developments within the marketplace. The purely crafted response to the Marketworks takeover: for a limited time, Kyozou is offering a program exclusively to Marketworks customers who may be contemplating a change of platform due to the uncertainty of their union with ChannelAdvisor.

According to Kyozou's Business Development and Marketing Director, "we've learned from simple observation that companies taken over by others don't tend to keep their own identity very long. They tend to get phased out, and in most cases, customers are literally forced to accept having to learn new systems and new procedures - they aren't really given much of a choice in the matter." In addition to having to cope with the potential aggravation of being pressured into doing business in an unfamiliar and perhaps unwanted platform, "it's entirely probable that some of the people those sellers have come to count on for support and guidance - won't be in their positions long, as downsizing is sure to happen and customer service/tech support is absorbed into the larger, parent corporation."

Kyozou simply wants to provide those sellers another option - while they still have the choice. Until November 30th, 2007, Kyozou is issuing an invitation to all current Marketworks customers the chance to cross-over to the Kyozou system - and virtually for free. "We would really like to keep the decision of how sellers best run their auction and e-commerce business squarely in their own hands", Kyozou said. "Realistically, Marketworks customers are going to be forced to accept the fact that they're going to have to adapt anyway: why not switch to Kyozou? They'll have immediate access to all our management tools, and they'll get an entire team of professionals with their growth and development firmly and clearly in mind."

Interested Marketworks customers can contact Kyozou for details about just how easy it is to migrate their existing inventory and templates over to Kyozou's system. (www.kyozou.com/marketworks.asp)

So, is Kyozou taking aim at the Goliaths still out there? "I don't think we're 'the next big thing'. I think we're already there. David did become a King after all, didn't he?"